Three wickets by debutant Lukas Carey reduced Northamptonshire to 108/4 from 34 overs at the end of a rain-affected opening day of their Specsavers County Championship match against Glamorgan at Swansea,
Evening Update
After the loss of a further over after a tea-time shower, Northants resumed on 45/4, and David Murphy saw the visitors to fifty by square-driving Ruaidhri Smith for four followed shortly afterwards by a clip to the ropes at mid-wicket. Together with Laurie Evans the pair quietly accumulated with Owen Morgan also having a spell at the Mumbles Road Enf, but at 5.20pm the rains returned as the players left the field with Northants on 73/4.
Once again, it proved to only be a passing shower with play resumed at 6.10pm with 6.3 overs remaining and Laurie Evans – the on-loan batsman from Warwickshire, duly helped his new employers to reach 108/4 at the close. However, both he and David Murphy played and missed several times as Lukas Carey and Timm van der Gugten once again beat the bat. Evans though did cut both bowlers for four followed by an on-drive to the ropes at mid-off against Carey, whilst Murphy brought up the fifty stand by square-driving the Dutchman
Teatime Report
After their bitter-sweet sequence of games during the past fortnight in white-ball cricket, Glamorgan return to action in Championship cricket with their annual contest at Swansea – the scene of many historic victories in the Club’s past, including their stirring victory over the 1951 South Africans, plus back-to-back victories against the Australians in 1964 and 1968.
Indeed, 1968 also saw Garry Sobers become the first player in cricket history to hit six sixes in an over in a first-class game. With such a rich cricketing heritage, a special ceremony took place during the lunch interval with the unveiling of a commemorative blue plaque adjacent to the entrance into the ground in Bryn Road, opposite The Cricketers Pub.
As well as looking back, Glamorgan have an eye on the future with today’s contest seeing several younger players being a chance, especially in the bowling department where several senior bowlers are rested ahead of the Twenty20 quarter-final. Lukas Carey, the promising nineteen year-old seamer who has impressed in 2nd XI cricket as well as in the South Wales Premier League, made his first-class debut and shared the new ball with Timm van der Gugten as Ben Duckett and Robbie Newton opened the batting for Northamptonshire.
Carey found a leading edge in his second over as Ben Duckett shaped to play the ball through mid-wicket but ended up dispatching the ball through the gully, but the youngster claimed his maiden wicket later in the over as the opener skewed a ball into the hands of Ruaidhri Smith at cover. 11/1 saw Sean Terry join Newton, but rain built up over Mumbles Head and three overs later, the players and umpires left the field shortly after 2pm.
The precipitation continued for half-an-hour and a resumption was duly made at 3.15pm with a further 19 overs being lost in the day’s allocation, with 24 having been lost before lunch. Sean Terry duly pulled van der Gugten for four but in Carey’s next over, the teenager struck again as he trapped the former Hampshire man l.b.w. The rains then returned as the players left the field again with Northamptonshire on 24/2, with five further overs being lost.
Van der Gugten then claimed a third wicket as Rob Newton edged an expansive cut into Mark Wallace’s gloves as Glamorgan secured their first bowling point after 8.2 overs. Rob Keogh responded by cutting and cover driving Carey for a pair of fours, but the teenager struck again with the last ball of his sixth over as Keogh edged to Aneurin Donald at second slip who completed a head-high catch to give the youngster the exemplary figures of 3/23..